Re: /usr/bin/env and the Lua bytecode format

[ramsdell@... (John D. Ramsdell)]

Julian Squires <tek@wiw.org> writes:

> > Yeah its not that hard :-) but you will have to create a bigger header and
> > I'm interrested in keeping the compiled bytecode as small as possible.
> 
> I don't really care (I use lua for embedded stuff only anyway), but I
> don't think it makes that much of a difference. With a well-designed change,
> you wouldn't need to provide that header -- it would just be convenient
> for people using lua standalone on *nix and compatibles. The only
> added complexity would be in the interpreter, and I think that's a
> pretty trivial change.

Yes, I always intended that at #! header in a byte code file be
completely optional, only to used by people creating standalone
programs on Unix, just as it is for source files.  I am surprised this
suggestion generated so much controversy.  Perhaps people thought I
was suggesting all byte code files include the header.  If so, I
apologize for the confusion.


> FWIW, also, I use ``.luc'' for Lua bytecode files, but that's pretty
> arbitrary.

That extension is nice because the byte code file will stay very close
to the source when alphabetized during a directory listing.

John